There is a story told about the overnight train that once ran between Chicago and New Orleans on the Illinois Central Railroad called the Panama Limited (named in honor of the opening of the Panama Canal). The train was made up entirely of Pullman sleeping cars, a diner, and a lounge observation car. It made only a few stops along the way and was known for its speed and tight schedule. According to the story, a passenger for Chicago boarding the train in Jackson, Mississippi leaned over to kiss his wife who was standing on the platform. The train started moving at just that instant and it accelerated so rapidly that the man ended up kissing a mule a quarter mile down the track.
Although this story is certainly not true, it is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Timekeeping was a matter of pride on the Panama Limited. The bosses at the Illinois Central held everyone accountable for it. But what was very appropriate for a crack train in the golden age of trains may not translate so well into our moral life. In a recent syndicated column, Ron Rolheiser, OMI, noted that so often when we think about leading a moral life, we stop at the question, “Is it a sin?” If we avoid doing anything wrong, then we are leading a good moral life (If we are doing our job exactly right, the train will arrive on time). But this is not all that Jesus is asking of us.
Rolheiser points to the passage in the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus calls us to a “righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees” (Matt 5:20). “It assumes that we are already living the elementary essentials of morality, the Ten Commandments, and instead Jesus invites us to something beyond those essentials, namely, to be the adult in the room.” Rolheiser says that it is easy to miss the point here, because so often in the Gospels the Pharisees are depicted as pompous hypocrites. Thus, for our righteousness to exceed theirs, we only need be sincere in our efforts to keep the commandments and avoid making a public show of our virtue. In fact, Rolheiser says, “Most of the scribes and Pharisees were good, honest, sincere people . For them, living a good moral and religious life meant keeping the Ten Commandments (all of them!) and being a man or woman who was scrupulously fair to everyone. It meant being a just person.”
What is lacking? According to Rolheiser “The demands of justice still permit us to hate our enemies, to curse those who curse us, and to execute murderers. Jesus invites us to something beyond that, namely, to love those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, and forgive those who kill us. . . .it is a sense of morality not focused on what is a sin or what is not a sin. Rather it’s a positive invitation beckoning us to reach higher, to transcend our natural impulses, to be more than someone who just keeps the commandments and avoids sin. . . .to be someone who helps the world carry its tension.”
This last phrase struck me as particularly apt for our time. In these tense and confusing times, if we help the world “carry its tension,” then no one has to be 100% right or 100% wrong. Yes, we can want secure borders, but we don’t have to want families being separated in the process. Yes, we can support taking a chopping block to the sluggish government bureaucracy, but we can resist sacrificing essential services. Yes, we can be compassionate to those struggling with their sexual identity without buying into everything designed to make that trendy. Yes, we can express our support for church teaching, without isolating one teaching and making it grounds for barring someone from receiving communion. Yes, we can share the Good News of Jesus Christ, without belittling the faith or life experience of someone else. Yes, we can be outraged at murderers and still not believe they should be put to death.
Being able to live with the complexities of life and the complexities of life choices means that we cannot just stand on the sidelines pointing fingers. In fact, we may find ourselves being led where we never expected to go. Quoting Rolheiser, “The question with which we need to challenge ourselves is not, is this a sin . . . The question with which we need to challenge ourselves is rather, what am I being invited into? Where do I need to stretch myself toward something higher? Am I loving beyond my natural impulses? And more specifically, am I loving those who hate me? Am I blessing those who curse me?”